Gil Kalai’s blog

Michal Linial: No Witches in Portugal

It gives me great pride to present:

Michal Linial: March 2012

No witches in Portugal

Landing in LISBOA, Portugal last night. I need to get to my hotel in Cascais. The nice lady in the tourist information ordered a taxi and happily said: “Do not worry, our drivers speak excellent English.

Five minutes later my driver arrived, a huge person, nicely dressed with a fancy nice black car. “To Cascais, What is the price” I asked in a fluent English.Well, it depends he replied…

My huge driver, was very fluent in English as promised… Then he starts… Three years ago I had a ski accident, at that time I was much heavier… I was wondering how such information might be relevant to our trip… My driver continues: “From the time of the accident my leg is not the same. This is why I bought this car with a “gear” instead of an automatic transmission, so I can practice my left leg. Most of time I can move it, but I still do not feel it when it is cold”… “Is it cold today?” I asked. No, today it is fine. Yesterday it was cold.

How long is it to Cascais? I was asking. My driver relied honestly: “it depends on the road”… Oh, I said… waiting for an explanation. It took a minute for him to explain: “You know, I always drive by my feelings. Sometime, I have a feeling that it is not good to take the freeway. Today I have this feeling. “OK, it is best that you listen to your feelings”, I relied quietly. He continues: “You know, there are no witches in Portugal, but it is better to listen to them”. Of course, I said.

You know he continue, my brother in law who was a driver in our taxi company had a bad feeling 4 months ago when he took the small road instead of the highway, and indeed he died. A truck crushed him. But the passenger, a British person that was in the car was not hurt. The passenger had his seat belt fasten, like you… Do you want me to show you where he died?, it is on the way to the hotel, he insisted. Sure I replied. If it is on the way, and you feels that we should not take the highway, let’s go on the other road…

We drove on a neglected road. It was not too cold… My huge driver mentioned me the spot where his brother in law died… We are now 10 min from the hotel he updated me. But I missed the entrance. You know, he continued, once I drove with my mother, I missed the entrance to the road. Then, I knew that I should not get into this road. Do you mind that I will drop you here? it is no more than 200 meters to your hotel. I happily paid the 60 Euro, another tip for 10 Euro for the good witch that was with us.

While I was walking with my luggage on the hill to the hotel, a taxi was stopping behind me. It was my big driver again… He said: I forgot to give you my card. Please call me when you want to go back to the airport. it will be only 30 Euro. We can take the highway. I am still in Portugal for another 2 days. I will call him if it will not be too cold.